We made it to 2026, and the turn of the calendar brings with it a brand new month of Marvel Snap Most Wanted! I hope everyone has had a restful week of holiday cheer and is ready to cast what will undoubtedly be some of the most important votes of 2026!
Last month, we held the first-ever second-chance vote, and the community decided to return the following three champions to the list: Dogpool, Ex Nihilo, and Shathra. I’ll have some more information on them later in the article, along with the characters who will be joining them on this month’s list.
Not to get ahead of myself, but if you’re curious - yes, I’ll be spotlighting Doop at the end of this article. This month’s spotlight theme, while a little bit loose, will tie in with January’s Dragon season by focusing on non-human characters.
Before I jump into this month’s list, I want to announce this month’s gimmick new addition to Most Wanted - The Character Prediction League!
In addition to voting for the characters you most WANT to see in Marvel Snap, I’m also going to embark on a yearlong competition that asks you, what characters do you actually THINK will appear in Marvel Snap this year?
To start things off, I gathered some of Snap.Fan’s best and brightest, writers, editors, and contributors of yesterday and today! Let’s take a deep dive into the Character Prediction League!
(As per tradition, anyone who wants to skip my ramblings can jump directly to voting by clicking here!)
The Character Prediction League
The Most Wanted Character Prediction League will ask you to use a slightly different part of your brain than the traditional Most Wanted poll! Instead of voting for the characters you want in Marvel Snap, you’re going to be competing to see who can most accurately predict what 2026 will look like in Marvel Snap.
Think of it as Fantasy Football for Marvel Snap. You’ll pick a group of characters that you think will enter the game this year. Each will be assigned a point value, and at the end of the year, I’ll total the number of points for your accurate guesses. We will only be looking at the April season and onwards, as January through March have mostly been datamined.
A few weeks ago, I held a draft with myself, BEWD, ScoSco, DualGloves, HARRYPerry, Quiksilvur, and Interrobang. Take a look below at the rules we used:
Rules:
- Once a character is picked, they cannot be picked again.
- Cards that have datamined release dates or presumed seasons are ineligible to be selected. (Example: You cannot choose Fin Fang Foom or Kraglin, but you can select Tombstone or Firestar.)
- You cannot select tie-in characters (Brand New Day, Doomsday), but you can choose variant-style characters. (Shang Chi: Master of the Rings, Drax: Avatar of Life.)
- If you select a new character, and their card is released as a tie-in, that will count. (If you vote for Tombstone, but it is released as Tombstone: Brand New Day, that will count.)
- You can select Skill names.
We drafted in a snake order, with BEWD randomly getting the first pick. Let’s take a look at how the votes turned out:
Along with this month’s Most Wanted poll, you’ll also have the option to fill out a second separate poll that will ask you to pick FIVE characters you think will enter Marvel Snap this year. The same rules that we used above will apply to these votes. (Other than the fact that you don’t have to worry about what other people have already voted for.)
I’ll keep track of this throughout 2026, and at the end of the year, the winner will receive a fabulous prize. (Yes, I know this is long-term, but all you have to do is vote - I’m the one who has to keep track of things!)
Keep in mind, when the next patch drops on January 6th, additional characters may become off limits, based on any datamines for future seasons or characters.
You can vote in the Prediction League by clicking here, or check for the link again at the bottom of the article!
Thank you to all of the Snap.Fan crew that volunteered to contribute to the Prediction League! Good luck to everyone! Which of our prediction slates above is most likely to win? Will your predictions beat ours?
Graduates
Quick shoutout to our graduates this month - including the first ever to have had a character spotlight: Dragon Man. I’m not shedding a tear, I have something in my eye…
Newcomers
I’ve already talked about three of the newcomers this month, but who are the other seven?
Well, if you paid close attention to some of the characters selected by writers in the Prediction League, you’ll have a good idea of a few of them.
Joining us straight from their predictions are: Death Dealer and Miss Minutes, predicted by Interrobang, Shamrock predicted by Dualgloves, Paladin predicted by HARRYPerry, and Ken the Septapus predicted by Scosco.
These five are fantastic additions, all with good potential for joining the game in the upcoming year. It’s a nice mix of classics, with decades of comic history behind them, and also newcomers that only made their debut a few months ago. (Looking at you, Ken.)
In addition, the final two newcomers come from voter-submitted suggestions: The Red Skull’s daughter, Sin, and for the first time on the list, a vehicle - the X-Men’s Blackbird!
Character Spotlight: Doop
This always felt inevitable. It always comes back to Doop, doesn’t it?
I could try to explain what Doop is, but it would be pointless. Doop is just Doop. Created in 2001 as part of an all-new X-Force, Doop is a founding member and videographer for a team concerned with drama, public appeal, and ratings.
Although Doop doesn’t speak English, all of his team members (and everyone else around him) seem to understand him pretty well. This is, of course, never really explained.
If you dig deep enough into the Marvel-lore books, there is one throwaway line that references Doop being the result of a Cold War experiment - but this is never elaborated on in any comics.
X-Force, under legal threat, eventually changes its name to X-Statix, and with a revolving roster (thanks to significant death-related turnover), Doop is the most consistent member.
In addition to his role as a member of X-Statix, Doop also has several team-ups, spending time alongside Wolverine, Iron Fist, and even comes close to marrying Kitty Pryde in his own imprint called All-New Doop. This particular story delves into his family history and life between the panels in a land called “Marginalia.”
Doop has spent many years working at the Xavier school and has held jobs in the building with varying degrees of ineptitude.
In terms of superpowers, Doop can do it all. He’s got multiple brains, super strength, elasticity, psionic powers, flight, regeneration, and, of course, the meta-ability to travel between the margins. Doop is also an avid lover of love, and having read an overwhelming number of Doop comics over the past few days, he may now be one of the most promiscuous Marvel characters.
At the end of the day, though, Doop’s most important role is still that of videographer for X-Statix, with his found family, and where he fits in the most.
Doop in Marvel Snap
A character as strange, unique, and rule-breaking as Doop deserves to also fit those things on a card. I’m going to go a little bit out of my comfort zone here, with something that I’m not entirely sure is possible (or would work) in Marvel Snap, with the following design:
Doop - 1/2 - This card can be played into a location that is full.
Yes, that’s right, Doop has unlocked the fifth space. He has to be there to film all of the action, even if it’s already a party. Doop will utilize the margins of the Marvel Snap board to make room, even when there seemingly isn’t any.
Because this is such an extreme ability, I was hesitant to give it more than 2 power, but really, that’s more than enough to break a tie.
Here’s a deck Doop could potentially work in:
Doop Marvel Snap Most Wanted
To take advantage of Doop’s power, you want to be able to fill as many locations as possible. Zoo with Squirrel Girl and Shanna makes that possible, and when you add a little bit of synergy with Surfer/Brood zoo decks, you have a nice blend of two styles that benefit each other, and often end with full locations.
I added in Howard and Iron Lad, because this is a deck that benefits from multiples of specific powerful cards, like Brood or Blue Marvel. I also like the idea of Iron Lad copying Doop in order to find his way into the margins, too. I’m not sure if there’s any actual potential for the deck (or the card) - but it’s a “space” worth exploring, and Doop is the perfect character to explore it.
Conclusion
That brings us to the end of another Marvel Snap Most Wanted post. A lot is going on this month, I know. I’m really excited for this month’s poll, and also your guesses in the Character Prediction league. (Who thought Marvel Snap and Fantasy Sports could fit together so well?)
So there you have it - one post, one character spotlight, and TWO polls! Cheers to 2026!